System and method of determining call treatment of repeat calls

ABSTRACT

A method and system of handling a call received at a call center is disclosed. The method includes determining that the call is a repeat call. The method also includes determining whether the repeat call is to receive a first treatment type. The method further includes servicing the repeat call with the first treatment type when the repeat call is determined to receive the first treatment type. The method includes servicing the repeat call with a second treatment type when the repeat call is determined to not receive the first treatment type. The second treatment type includes providing access to a self-service automated system.

CLAIM OF PRIORITY

The present application claims priority from and is a continuation ofU.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/129,051, now issued as U.S. Pat. No.7,636,432, filed on May 13, 2005 and entitled “System and Method ofDetermining Call Treatment of Repeat Calls,” the contents of which areexpressly incorporated herein by reference in their entirety.

FIELD OF THE DISCLOSURE

The present disclosure relates generally to call treatment andprocessing of repeat calls by an automated call processing system.

BACKGROUND

The advent of speech-enabled interactive voice response systems hasenabled call center organizations to efficiently deploy automatedcustomer service functions in place of live agents, thereby reducingoperational costs. However, this cost savings often comes at the priceof reduced efficiency, as a live agent often is more effective ataddressing particular types of customer inquiries. The use of aninteractive voice response system also may lead to frustration on thepart of a repeat caller, i.e., a caller who has called a call center atleast twice within a certain time period. The repeat caller may becalling to readdress an issue that was unresolved by a previous call. Insuch instances, the repeat caller may become agitated when the caller isrequired to navigate the interactive voice response system for a secondtime rather than addressing the caller's issue directly with a liveagent. Alternatively, the repeat caller may be calling again to obtaininformation and may not expect to receive the assistance of a liveagent. For example, the repeat call could be to obtain a bill paymentamount that the caller obtained previously but has since misplaced. Insuch instances, the use of a live agent to assist the repeat callertypically is an inefficient utilization of the live agent as the callerlikely would have obtained the same information at a lower cost using aninteractive voice response system.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a general diagram of a communication system;

FIG. 2 is a general block diagram that illustrates call processing;

FIG. 3 is a general diagram that illustrates an automated callprocessing system within the communication system of FIG. 1;

FIGS. 4 and 5 are flow charts that illustrate methods of handling callsat the automated call processing system of FIG. 3.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

A call received at a call center is determined to be a repeat call. Therepeat call is evaluated to determine whether the repeat call is toreceive a first treatment type. The repeat call is serviced with thefirst treatment type when the repeat call is determined to receive thefirst treatment type. The repeat call is serviced with a secondtreatment type when the repeat call is determined to not receive thefirst treatment type. The second treatment type includes providingaccess to a self-service automated system.

In a particular embodiment, a computer implemented method includesdetermining that a call received at a call center is a repeat call. Thecomputer implemented method includes determining whether the repeat callis to receive a first treatment type. The computer implemented methodalso includes servicing the repeat call with the first treatment typewhen the repeat call is determined to receive the first treatment type.The computer implemented method further includes servicing the repeatcall with a second treatment type when the repeat call is determined tonot receive the first treatment type. The second treatment type includesproviding access to a self-service automated system.

In another particular embodiment, a system includes a processor and amemory accessible to the processor. The memory includes operationalinstructions that, when executed by the processor, cause the processorto determine whether a call received at the call center is a repeatcall. The memory includes operational instructions that, when executedby the processor, cause the processor to determine whether the repeatcall is to receive a first treatment type. The memory also includesoperational instructions that, when executed by the processor, cause theprocessor to service the repeat call with the first treatment type whenthe repeat call is determined to receive the first treatment type. Thememory further includes operational instructions that, when executed bythe processor, cause the processor to service the repeat call with asecond treatment type when the repeat call is determined to not receivethe first treatment type. The second treatment type includes providingaccess to a self-service automated system.

In another particular embodiment, a computer-readable storage mediumcomprising operational instructions that, when executed by a processor,cause the processor to determine that a call received at a call centeris a repeat call based on a threshold time period. The operationalinstructions are further executable by the processor to determinewhether the repeat call is to receive a first treatment type. Theoperational instructions are further executable by the processor toservice the repeat call with the first treatment type when the repeatcall is determined to receive the first treatment type. The operationalinstructions are further executable by the processor to service therepeat call with a second treatment type when the repeat call isdetermined to not receive the first treatment type, wherein the secondtreatment type includes providing access to a self-service automatedsystem.

Referring to FIG. 1, an illustrated embodiment of a communicationssystem 100 that includes a call routing support system is shown. Thecommunications system 100 includes a speech-enabled call routing system(SECRS) 118, such as an interactive voice response system having aspeech recognition module. The communications system 100 also includes aplurality of potential call destinations. Illustrative call destinationsshown include service departments, such as a billing department 120, abalance information department 122, a technical support department 124,an employee directory department 126, and new service department 128. Inpractice, a communications network 116 may receive calls from a varietyof callers, such as the illustrated callers 110, 112, and 114. In aparticular embodiment, the communications network 116 may be a publictelephone network, a wireless telephone network, a voice over Internetprotocol (VoIP)-type network, or other network capable of supportingcommunications. As depicted, the SECRS 118 may include a processor 142,a memory 143, a synonym table 144, and an action-object routing module140. Depending upon implementation, the SECRS 118 may be coupled to andmay route calls to various destinations across a local area network(LAN), a wide area network (WAN), an Intranet, an extranet, the publicInternet, and/or other communications link or networks, as shown.

Additionally, the SECRS 118 may route calls to an agent, such as theillustrated live operator 130. An illustrative embodiment of the SECRS118 may be a call center having a plurality of agent terminals attached.Thus, while only a single operator 130 is shown in FIG. 1, it should beunderstood that a plurality of different agent terminals or types ofterminals may be coupled to the SECRS 118, such that a variety of agentsmay service incoming calls. Moreover, the SECRS 118 may be operable asan automated call routing system.

Referring to FIG. 2, an illustrative block diagram of the action-objectrouting module 140 as implemented by the processor 142 is depicted. Asshown, the action-object routing module 140 may include an acousticprocessing model 210, a semantic processing model 220, and anaction-object routing table 230. The acoustic model 210 receives speechinput 202 (provided by a caller) and provides a corresponding textoutput 204. The semantic model 220 receives text output 204 directly orindirectly from the acoustic model 210 and produces an action-objecttable 206 containing salient terms of the speech input 202. In aparticular embodiment, the one or more actions and objects in theaction-object table 206 may be ordered or ranked according to aconfidence level. The confidence level may be used to indicate howlikely a given action or object reflects a correct and useable customerinstruction.

The action-object routing module 140 employs the action-object routingtable 230 to identify a call routing destination 208 based on matchingbetween the action-object pairs of the action-object table 206 tocorresponding call routing destination entries of the routing table 230.In a particular embodiment, the action-object routing table 230 may beimplemented as a lookup table or a spreadsheet, such as a MicrosoftExcel™ spreadsheet. A call received at a call routing network may berouted to the appropriate destination as identified by the call routingdestination 208, such as the billing department 120 or the technicalsupport service department 124 depicted in FIG. 1.

Referring to FIG. 3, a particular embodiment of the automated callprocessing system 300 is illustrated. As shown, the system 300 mayinclude call processing logic 302, a repeat caller definition table 304,a repeat caller action-object table 306 and a special treatmentresolution table 308. The repeat caller action-object table 306 includesa plurality of action-object pairs 320. Similarly, the special treatmentresolution table 308 includes a plurality of action-object pairs 330.

In a particular embodiment, the repeat caller definition table 304, therepeat caller action-object table 306, and the special treatmentresolution table 308 are each implemented as data stored within acomputer readable memory. In a particular embodiment, a single computerreadable memory may store all of these tables, but in another embodimentseparate memory devices may be used to store each of the illustratedtables. Examples of computer readable memory include, but are notlimited to, random access memory (RAM), flash memory, cache, hard diskstorage, and the like. Further, in one embodiment, the call processinglogic 302 is implemented as a software program for use by a computerprocessing device.

During operation, the automated call processing system 300 activatesprogram logic within the call processing logic unit 302. The callprocessing logic 302 accesses data from the repeat call definition table304 to identify a repeat call request. The call processing logic 302also accesses the action-object table 306 and the special treatmentresolution table 308 to determine whether the identified repeat call isto be serviced using a first treatment type (e.g., special treatment)rather than a second treatment type (e.g., standard treatment). Specialtreatment of a call may include, for example, routing the call to a liveagent, whereas the standard treatment may include, for example, forwardthe call to an automated self-service system. As noted herein, in oneembodiment, repeat calls having certain attributes are serviced usingthe first treatment type, whereas other calls typically are servicedusing the second treatment type.

The repeat caller action-object table 306 is accessed by the callprocessing logic 302 to retrieve specific action-object pairs 320associated with a call. The specific action-object pairs 320 retrievedfrom the action-object table 306 may be used as an index to one or moreaction-object pairs 330 within the special treatment resolution table308. In a particular embodiment, a first action-object pair 320corresponds to the repeat call that was received at the automated callprocessing system 300. A second action-object pair 320 within theaction-object pair table 306 corresponds to an action-object pair for apreviously received call. A third action-object pair 320 within theaction-object table 306 corresponds to a related action-object paircorresponding to the prior call. The call processing logic 302, uponreceipt of the action-object pairs 320 from the repeat calleraction-object pair table 306 and the special treatment information fromspecial treatment resolution table 308, compares the action-object pairretrieved from the action-object table 306 corresponding to a repeatcall to the second action-object pair that corresponds to the priorcall. The prior call and the repeat call are identified as beingoriginated by a common caller. In addition, the call processing logicmodule 302 determines whether the repeat call is identified asassociated with an unresolved issue of the caller that would warrantservicing the call with a first treatment type (e.g., special treatment)based on the indexed action-object pair 330 obtained from the specialtreatment resolution table 308, where the action-object pair 330indicates whether the corresponding action-object pair 320 of the repeatcall is to receive a particular treatment type, such as, for example,special treatment or standard treatment. The call processing system thenroutes the repeat call to the appropriate destination based on theindicated treatment.

Referring to FIG. 4, a particular embodiment of a method of handling acall received at a call center, such as a call received at the automatedcall processing system 300, is shown. The method includes receiving acall at the call center at 402. The method further includes determiningthat the call is a repeat call at 404 and determining whether the repeatcall is to receive a first treatment type (e.g., special treatment) at406. An example of the first treatment type as special treatmentincludes routing a caller to a live agent instead of to a self-servicesoftware system. In a particular embodiment, the determination ofwhether the call is to receive the first treatment type is based on anaction-object pair associated with the repeat call. The action-objectpair characterizes the caller request and may be used to determinewhether a particular call is a repeat call and/or whether the repeatcall is to receive the first treatment type treatment. An example ofaction-object pairs in an action-object pair table that may be used todetermine whether a call is a repeat call or to determine whether a callis to receive the first treatment type is shown below in tables 1 and 2.

TABLE 1 Example of a portion of “Time Periods Defining Repeat Caller” CARepeat NV Repeat OK Repeat TX Repeat caller caller caller caller within# of within # of within # of within # of Segment Days Days Days DaysComplex 45 45 45 45 Growth 30 30 30 30 Value 7 7 7 7 Basic 7 7 7 7 Other0 0 0 0

TABLE 2 Example of a portion of “Repeat Caller Action-Objects”Action-Objects Repeat Logic Related AO 1 Related AO 2 Acquire-Basic YAcquire-Basic_DFLT Null Acquire-Basic_DFLT Y Acquire-Basic NullAcquire-Cingular Y Vague-CingularGroup_DFLT Inquire-CingularAcquire-Dish Y Null Null Acquire-DSL Y Null Null Acquire-LD Y Null NullAcquire-NamedServiceAgent Y Null Null Acquire-NamedServiceSystem Y NullNull Acquire-Service_DFLT N Null Null Acquire-Service_ServiceName_DFLT YNull Null Acquire-Winback Y Null Null AskAction-Complaint_DFLT Y NullNull AskAction-Service_DFLT Y Null Null Cancel-Basic Y Null NullCancel-Dish N Null Null

The method further includes servicing the repeat call with, for example,a special treatment when the repeat call is determined to receive thefirst treatment type, at 408. For example, where a repeat call isassociated with receipt of special treatment, that repeat call is routedto a live agent to address a caller's problem using a human agent. Inthis manner, repeat callers that are identified to receive specialtreatment are provided increased resources, such as the live agent, toassist the caller with an unresolved problem. The method furtherincludes providing, for example, standard treatment to the call insteadof special treatment when the call is determined to not require thefirst treatment type, or to require a second treatment type, at 410.

Referring to FIG. 5, a particular embodiment of a method of handling acall received at an automated call routing system is shown. The methodincludes receiving a call at the automated call routing system at 502and determining a threshold time period to determine whether the callqualifies as a repeat call at 504. The method further includes accessingan action-object table to assign a task to the call at 506 and comparingthe task of the call to the task of a prior call to determine whetherthe call is a repeat call at 508.

In a particular embodiment, the method includes comparing anaction-object pair of the call to an action-object pair that is relatedto a prior call to determine whether the call is a repeat call. In aparticular illustrative embodiment, the threshold time period is aspecified number of days.

Also, in a particular embodiment, the task provided by the caller isdetermined in connection with a purpose of a call inquiry received atthe automated call routing system. The task may be defined by aparticular action-object pair assigned to the call. When the call isdetermined to be a repeat call, the method may determine whether therepeat call is to be serviced with a first treatment type or a secondtreatment type based on the determined task of the call. An example ofthe second treatment type includes standard treatment, such as routingthe call to a self-service system. An example of the first treatmenttype includes special treatment, such as routing the call to a liveagent terminal at a call handling center.

With the disclosed system and method, a call center organization may useand identify tasks of a particular call to determine whether to resolvea caller's request using self-service automation, which is lessexpensive, or to route the call to a live agent for greater attentionand a personal touch. The disclosed task-dependent repeat call handlingsystem and method is an improvement over the conventional approach inwhich repeat callers are handled the same way and either all callers arerouted to a live agent or to a common self-service system. The disclosedsystem and method thereby provides enhanced service to select repeatcallers having unresolved issues that need immediate attention. Suchcallers are connected with a call center agent to receive specialtreatment.

In a particular illustrative embodiment, the method of determining arepeat caller and determining a call treatment may include performing alook-up in a repeat caller definition table for a particular number ofdays where the call is determined to be a repeat call. If the call isreceived within the time period then a repeat call flag may be set to‘yes’. The caller provides a task via a purpose of call field within anenterprise automated call routing system and an action-object pair isassigned to that call based on the task. A table look-up is then made inthe repeat caller action-object table to determine if the caller'scurrent action-object matches the action-object from their previouscall. If the action-object pairs match then repeat call logic may beidentified as active. Also, the action-object pair for the detected callmay be compared to a special treatment resolution table to determine howto resolve a particular action-object. For example, where the previousaction-object is equal to the detected action-object or where theprevious action-object is related to the current action-object, then thecaller may be detected as a repeat caller and the caller's task may besubsequently determined to be an unresolved issue. If a repeat caller isidentified as having an unresolved issue then the call is routed to alive agent for special treatment as determined by the special treatmentresolution table. However, where the call is not a repeat call or wherethe repeat call is not identified with an unresolved issue, then thecall is not provided the special treatment and is routed in the standardmanner.

While the disclosed system is described with respect to action-objecttechnology, it should be understood that the system and method disclosedis suitable with alternative call center systems. In addition, thedisclosed system and method provides an improved technique to handlerepeat callers by allocating live agent resources for those callerslikely to have unresolved issues, while efficiently and cost effectivelyapplying self-service system technology for those callers likely to haveless urgent needs. Thus, the disclosed system and method may reduce thenumber of repeat callers handled by a live agent and save significantcosts on a per call basis. Such cost considerations are increasinglyimportant as call centers handle larger and larger call volumes.

The above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, andnot restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all suchmodifications, enhancements, and other embodiments which fall within thetrue scope of the present invention. Thus, to the maximum extent allowedby law, the scope of the present invention is to be determined by thebroadest permissible interpretation of the following claims and theirequivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited by the foregoingdetailed description.

1. A computer implemented method comprising: determining that a callreceived at a call center is a repeat call; determining whether therepeat call is to receive a first call treatment; in response todetermining that the repeat call is to receive the first call treatment,servicing the repeat call with the first call treatment; and in responseto determining that the repeat call is not to receive the first calltreatment, servicing the repeat call with a second call treatment thatincludes routing the call to a self-service automated system.
 2. Thecomputer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the second calltreatment includes a standard treatment.
 3. The computer implementedmethod of claim 1, wherein the first call treatment includes a specialtreatment.
 4. The computer implemented method of claim 3, wherein thespecial treatment includes providing access to a live agent.
 5. Thecomputer implemented method of claim 1, wherein determining that thecall received is the repeat call is based on data retrieved from arepeat call table.
 6. The computer implemented method of claim 1,wherein an action-object pair associated with the call is retrieved froman action-object table, the action- object pair used to determine thatthe call is a repeat call.
 7. The computer implemented method of claim1, wherein determining whether the repeat call is to receive the firstcall treatment is based at least in part on data retrieved from anaction-object table.
 8. The computer implemented method of claim 7,wherein the data retrieved from the action-object table includes a firstaction-object pair associated with the call and a second action-objectpair associated with a prior call received at the call center, andwherein the first action-object pair is compared to the secondaction-object pair to determine whether the repeat call is to receivethe first call treatment.
 9. The computer implemented method of claim 8,wherein determining whether the repeat call is to receive the first calltreatment is based at least in part on second data that is retrievedfrom a resolution table based on the first action-object pair.
 10. Asystem comprising: a processor; a memory accessible to the processor,the memory including operational instructions that, when executed by theprocessor, cause the processor to perform a method comprising:determining whether a call received at a call center is a repeat call,determining whether the repeat call is to receive a first calltreatment, servicing the repeat call with the first call treatment inresponse to determining that the repeat call is to receive the firstcall treatment, and servicing the repeat call with a second calltreatment when the repeat call is determined to not receive the firstcall treatment, wherein the second call treatment includes providingaccess to a self-service automated system.
 11. The system of claim 10,wherein the method further comprises: receiving an action-object pairfrom an action-object table; and accessing an entry of a specialtreatment resolution table based on the action-object pair beforedetermining whether the repeat call is to receive the first calltreatment.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the special treatmentresolution table includes a plurality of action-object pair entries. 13.The system of claim 12, wherein a first action-object pair entry of theplurality of action-object pair entries corresponds to the repeat calland a second action-object pair entry of the plurality of action-objectpair entries corresponds to a prior call.
 14. The system of claim 13,wherein a third action-object pair entry of the plurality ofaction-object pair entries corresponds to the second action-object pairentry that is related to the prior call.
 15. The system of claim 13,wherein the method further comprises comparing the first action-objectpair entry to the second action-object pair entry.
 16. The system ofclaim 15, wherein the method further comprises identifying that theprior call and the repeat call are initiated by a caller.
 17. The systemof claim 16, wherein the method further comprises determining whetherthe repeat call is associated with an unresolved issue of the caller.18. The system of claim 10, wherein the method further comprises:providing an automated prompt to a caller who initiated the call; andreceiving task-identification information from the caller in response toproviding the automated prompt.
 19. A computer-readable storage mediumcomprising operational instructions that, when executed by a processor,cause the processor to perform a method comprising: determining that acall received at a call center is a repeat call; determining whether therepeat call is to receive a first call treatment; in response todetermining that the repeat call is to receive the first call treatment,servicing the repeat call with the first call treatment; and in responseto determining that the repeat call is not to receive the first calltreatment, servicing the repeat call with a second call treatment thatincludes providing access to a self-service automated system.
 20. Thecomputer-readable storage medium of claim 19, wherein the repeat call isassociated with an action-object pair retrieved from an action-objecttable, wherein the first call treatment is based at least in part on theaction-object pair chosen from the action-object table based on a taskassociated with the repeat call.